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A review by casparb
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol
5.0
Slowly been working my way through these four stories - certainly among the best short stories I've ever encountered. It's no mystery that Gogol has such an influence upon just about every Russian writer after.
The Overcoat/Mantle/Cloak - Cheeky. Nice. Very twentieth-century! I think this is Gogol's best known.
The Nose - What a curveball! One does not expect surrealism from stories written in the 1830s. Fantastic fantastic writing, cannot recommend enough. Just such a beautifully dense interweaving of characters that also teases at concepts of state authority played with by later writers. It's a story about a man whose nose runs away! What's not to like!
The Two Ivans (and their quarrel) - I think there's actually four Ivans in this story, if one keeps count. Anyway. Possibly the weakest of the four? But still! So wild - one is consistently lulled into realism, only to be slapped about the face with something a bit special. A pig charges into a lawyers office in order to steal papers. Goose is a highly offensive word.
Old-Fashioned Farmers - A forty page direct line to tears? I did not expect this at all. So beautiful, crushing, sweet, genius. read it read it read it. Avoids the saccharine too. Impossibly deft. Adore it Nikolai.
The Overcoat/Mantle/Cloak - Cheeky. Nice. Very twentieth-century! I think this is Gogol's best known.
The Nose - What a curveball! One does not expect surrealism from stories written in the 1830s. Fantastic fantastic writing, cannot recommend enough. Just such a beautifully dense interweaving of characters that also teases at concepts of state authority played with by later writers. It's a story about a man whose nose runs away! What's not to like!
The Two Ivans (and their quarrel) - I think there's actually four Ivans in this story, if one keeps count. Anyway. Possibly the weakest of the four? But still! So wild - one is consistently lulled into realism, only to be slapped about the face with something a bit special. A pig charges into a lawyers office in order to steal papers. Goose is a highly offensive word.
Old-Fashioned Farmers - A forty page direct line to tears? I did not expect this at all. So beautiful, crushing, sweet, genius. read it read it read it. Avoids the saccharine too. Impossibly deft. Adore it Nikolai.